URBAN SANCTUARY, SEDONA REALTY JOIN FORCES

Friday July 31, 2009 | by Sara Polsky, The Real Deal

Urban Sanctuary, Sedona Realty join forces

July 31, 2009 02:07PM By Sara Polsky

Urban Sanctuary and Sedona Realty have joined forces to create Urban Marketing, a new development marketing and sales company. A few weeks after launching, the company had already picked up several projects.

These buildings include Downtown Club at 20 West Street, 85 John Street and District at 111 Fulton Street, said Stephen McArdle, founder of Sedona Realty and a partner at Urban Marketing. Elie Pariente, a partner at brokerage Urban Sanctuary, which will continue its operations in addition to launching the new venture, and Issac Krispin, Urban Sanctuary's founder and president, are the other two leaders of the new company.

"In these times, it's a combination of real brokerage skills that are needed coupled with very creative marketing strategies," McArdle said. He said he brings to the table experience with the design and development process, as well as sales and marketing, while Urban Sanctuary has been "much more on the front line of both sales and leasing." Urban Marketing is also handling a successful project at 552 West 43rd Street, where five contracts in the eight-unit building had been signed as of June.

McArdle said the projects the company had signed onto as of mid-July each required a different business model. At Downtown Club, an existing, sold-out condo conversion, Urban Marketing will be the project's preferred on-site sales and leasing agent for owners who want to sell or investors who want to rent.

At 85 John Street, a rental building, Urban Marketing will also be the exclusive agent on-site.

At District, Urban Marketing has been retained to complete sales at the building, which is more than 70 percent sold, said Ricky Cohen, a managing partner on the project with co-developer Urban Equities NY. McArdle said he had been a consultant on the building's original design and development team, and Cohen said that was the reason for bringing Urban Marketing onto the project. "When it became clear that Stephen could make his energies available to us again, we felt it was the right step for us."

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